


The Soul to Dare

by amyfortuna



Category: Watership Down - Richard Adams
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, Gen, Prophetic Dreams
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-06
Updated: 2015-11-06
Packaged: 2018-04-30 08:59:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5157887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amyfortuna/pseuds/amyfortuna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before leaving Sandleford Warren, Fiver has a dream visit from the Black Rabbit of Inlé.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Soul to Dare

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spiderfire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spiderfire/gifts).



Fiver dreamed. His legs kicked a little, as if he wanted to run, and in his mind he was crouching down in the borderlands that separate the world of waking rabbits from the world of the ones who have stopped running and will never wake. 

Sandleford Warren was cozy and warm; Fiver was snuggled up between two other rabbits. But in his dream it was cold and dark, and the blood-red cast of the sunset earlier had turned into black despair. 

"I will make a bargain!" he called into his dreamworld. "Let me save whoever I can. Just let me try." 

The Black Rabbit of Inlé appeared before him. There was no sound of his arrival into Fiver's dream, only the fact of his appearance, the dark gaze of his eyes, steady and sombre. 

"I do not make bargains, little one," he said. "The blood of Sandleford Warren will flow without stint or measure, and I cannot quell it or hold it back."

"What can I do?" Fiver said, nose twitching. "There must be something I can do." 

The Black Rabbit looked at him soberly, then bent to nibble at the grass. Fiver looked down. Between his paws the grass was red, but when he looked away at the distance, it was green and lush. A hill rose before his eyes, and the Black Rabbit turned, without another word, and began loping up it, pausing now and again to taste the fresh green grass. 

Fiver followed as best he could; hopping here and there, now pausing, ears flat against his head, now rushing onward for fear that he would lose the Black Rabbit in the mist that lay all about them. 

"Find your road," the Black Rabbit's voice said, and it seemed to come from all around him. "Take it alone if you must, but you must leave, or you will not survive."

"Will I survive if I leave?" Fiver called into the mist, but there was no answer, only the faint sound of stones being scuffled as if some creature was running over them. But looking down, Fiver saw that the grass between his paws was now green and good to eat. He turned, and where he had come from, the mist was dark and heavy, and the ground still ran red. 

Ahead was brightness and warmth; not clear, not easy, but better by far than the way back to Sandleford.


End file.
